An election candidate has made a formal complaint against two councillors over comments they made about his role as a senior officer in South Yorkshire Police at the time of the Hillsborough disaster.

Patrick McGinley, who was the Conservative candidate for Overton ward, said he has reported Labour councillors Melissa Fisher and Gareth Molineux to the council over comments they made regarding his former career as a chief inspector.

He has accused the two councillors of making “vile personal attacks” against him saying they affected his chances of winning the election.

Both Coun Fisher, who represents Clayton-le-Moors, and Overton councillor Gareth Molineux, deny any wrongdoing and refute the claim that their conversation - which they say was a private one and not held in their capacity as councillors - had any effect on the election result.

Mr McGinley, who was beaten by Labour’s candidate Stephanie Howarth, said: “I lost by 69 votes and the vile, personal attacks upon me may well have altered the expected outcome.”

In a series of posts made on Facebook seen by the Observer, councillor Melissa Fisher and Overton councillor Gareth Molineux discussed Mr McGinley’s former career in South Yorkshire police force and his role in providing depositions and interviewing officers following the Hillsborough disaster.

Mr McGinley served in South Yorkshire police rising to the post of chief inspector in January 1989, but he retired 11 years ago.

He appeared on the BBC News at Six on April 28 to speak about the verdict of the inquest into the disaster.

He told the BBC that he was not on duty at Hillsborough, however he was called into headquarters at 5pm to help with the radio appeal.

Responding to the complaint against him, Councillor Molineux told the Observer: “As far as the complaints that have been made against me, I am taking legal advice and believe that no offence has been taken place, and it was Patrick that brought his involvement with Hillsborough into the public domain, not myself.”

Coun Molineux said that the conversation was carried out in a private capacity, although at the time he said his Facebook page had been ‘open’ to the public.

He said: “I was having a conversation with someone on Facebook which was a private Facebook page. I made no accusations. I only said that I had read the Hillsborough files that showed Patrick McGinley’s involvement.

“None of [the posts] have been removed from my Facebook page, however after taking advice [from the council] my Facebook page was no longer ‘open’. This was to try to remove any grey area to make sure where my council life and my private life were separated.”

Councillor Fisher told the Observer the conversation had been a personal one between her and Coun Molineux.

She said: “It was just a personal opinion. It was not said in a capacity as a councillor but it was based on publicly available information that was readily available that Patrick was involved in Hillsborough. Unfortunately Patrick McGinley was upset by it.

“If he had contacted me at the time I would have taken them down. But I think it’s largely a case of sour grapes that he lost the election.”

A Hyndburn council spokesperson said: “We have received a complaint which we will deal with under our member complaints procedure. We cannot discuss the detail of the complaint at this preliminary stage of the investigation process.

“It is being dealt with internally in accordance with the council’s rules and procedures for dealing with complaints about councillors.

“There is no requirement to refer the matter to the Electoral Commission.”